In the digital age, organizations increasingly rely on digitally stored data. To protect against data loss, an organization may use a backup system to back up important data. In some cases, an organization may also handle and store data via virtual machines. Accordingly, a backup system may back up data from a virtual disk to preserve data handled by a virtual machine.
Some traditional backup systems may back up virtual machine data by backing up virtual machine disk files. Unfortunately, these traditional backup systems may prove inflexible and/or inefficient when an organization wishes to back up and restore data of individual applications within the virtual machine. Some traditional backup systems may back up virtual machine data by installing a backup application within a virtual machine so that the backup application may have a logical view of and target individual applications running within the virtual machine. However, some virtualization environments may include hundreds or thousands of virtual machines. Installing, administering, and updating backup applications for thousands of virtual machines may create a heavy administrative burden and introduce many possibilities for human error.
Accordingly, the instant disclosure identifies and addresses a need for additional and improved systems and methods for protecting virtual machine data.